1891 — June 19, Trains collide (open switch), near Sauve plantation & New Orleans, LA– 6

— 6  Appletons’ Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of…1891. 1892, p. 254.

— 6  Logansport Daily Pharos. “Death on the Illinois Central.” 6-20-1891, p. 1.

— 6  New Philadelphia Times, OH. “An Open Switch.” 6-25-1891, p. 2.

Narrative Information

June 20: “New Orleans, June 20. — The fast express train on the Illinois Central railroad, due here at 7:20 p.m., passed Kenner’s station nearly two hours behind time.  Five miles south of that point, and an equal distance from this city, the train was wrecked. Six persons, it is reported, were killed, and twenty more injured. A relief train has been sent to the scene of the accident with doctors and a number of ambulances ordered to the station to receive and convey the wounded to the hospital.  The wreck knocked down all the wires of the Western Union company on the Illinois Central railroad, cutting off telegraph communication with Kenner. The wreck occurred near the old Sauve plantation.”[1]  (Logansport Daily Pharos. “Death on the Illinois Central. Six Persons Reported Killed and Twenty Wounded.” 6-20-1891, p. 1.)

June 22: “New Orleans, June 22. – A collision on the Illinois Central railroad Friday night near Sauve was caused by an open switch, where a freight train was side-tracked and was run into by the south-bound fast express. Four men were killed and six severely injured. The killed were: Engineer W. D. Mitche, Fireman John Lawson, Charles Munn of McComb City, Miss; Bill Williams (colored), of Hammond, Ind. The wounded: Engineer Charles Corcoran, of New Orleans, about the head; Postal Clerk L. T. Binford, of Jackson, Tenn., about the spine, breast and legs; Postal Clerk T. J. Frazer, of Trenton, Tenn., severely scalded about the lower limbs, hands and face; Yson Lewis (colored), severely injured about the legs, head and hands; Jim Lewis (colored), of Hammond, severely scalded about the head, face and hands; Calvin Neits (colored, badly scaled about the head and upper portion of the body and both legs broken. Frazer and Neits died in the hospital here Saturday night [June 20].” (New Philadelphia Times, OH. “An Open Switch.” 6-25-1891, p. 2.)

June 23: “Postal Clerk T. G. Frazer, of Trenton, Tenn., and Edwin, Metz, a colored laborer of Aberdeen, Miss., who were injured in the Illinois Central train wreck Friday night, died in the hospital at New Orleans Saturday night.” (Alton Daily Telegraph, IL. “The News in Brief.” 6-23-1891, 4.)

Sources:

Appletons’ Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1891 (Vol. 16, new series). “Disasters in 1891.” NY: D. Appleton and Co., 1892. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=FUcoAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Alton Daily Telegraph, IL. “The News in Brief.” 6-23-1891, p. 4. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=116104163&sterm

Logansport Daily Pharos. “Death on the Illinois Central. Six Persons Reported Killed and Twenty Wounded.” 6-20-1891, p. 1. Accessed at:

http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=83516736&sterm

New Philadelphia Times, OH. “An Open Switch.” 6-25-1891, p. 2. Accessed 12-30-2019 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/new-philadelphia-times-jun-25-1891-p-2/

[1] The Sauve plantation became the River Ridge community in Jefferson Parish suburb of New Orleans. (Wikipedia.)